And with your help, Marc has finished with 77 more votes than David Blair. In this race, clearly every vote did matter.

Almost a month after the primary election, the Board of Elections has confirmed Marc Elrich will be the Democratic candidate for Montgomery County Executive.

As we shared in our “What’s at Stake” messages in the weeks leading up to the primary, there are some real choices to make in this election. The most important of those choices is who will lead us as County Executive for the next four years. After working with Marc Elrich on issues important to our county, especially raising the minimum wage, we believe he will be the best choice to stand with working families.

Our dedicated team of volunteers went all in for Marc — hosting house meetings, making calls, knocking doors, handing out materials at metro stops, and working the polls. And with your help, Marc has finished with 77 more votes than David Blair. In this race, clearly every vote did matter.

We are excited that four of our endorsed candidates are expected to be County Councilmembers following the general election in November: incumbents Tom Hucker, Nancy Navarro, and Hans Riemer, and first-time candidate Gabe Albornoz. We look forward to working with each of them to make sure Montgomery County is a place where all immigrants are welcome, all young people have a clear path to success, and all working people are treated with dignity.

Thank you to all the volunteers to worked so hard for our candidates who did not win: Brandy Brooks, Chris Wilhelm, Ben Shnider, and Reggie Oldak. Each of them had a vision for Montgomery County that resonated with us — especially as each in their own way challenged conventional wisdom about who should be making decisions in our county. We will continue to advocate and organize side by side with these amazing leaders as we work for a county that prioritizes regular people over big business.

In other County Council races, we look forward to continuing the meaningful conversations we had during our endorsement process with Will Jawando, Evan Glass, and Andrew Friedson. We know that we share many of the same values, and we are ready to partner with them to turn those values into action. To incumbents Sidney Katz and Craig Rice, we know there is much work to be done and we hope their doors will be open to us and our coalition partners as we continue to work for a county where everyone has what they need to grow and thrive.

This primary has been about as dramatic as local elections get here in Montgomery County and across the state of Maryland. Ben Jealous and Susie Turnbull won the primary for Governor by more than 10 percentage points over Rushern Baker. Mac Middleton, the powerful chair of the Senate Finance Committee in Annapolis, was unseated by Arthur Ellis. This was a pretty significant trend, especially in Baltimore, where Senate President Pro Tem Nathaniel J. McFadden lost to Delegate Cory V. McCray and Senator Joan Carter Conway, chair of the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee, lost to Delegate Mary Washington by less than 500 votes. In Prince George’s County, Joe Vallario, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, lost to Marvin Holmes and Ron Watson. All of these changes will mean new possibilities at the state level as long-time incumbents and members of leadership have been replaced, in many cases by more progressive candidates.

All of the votes have been counted (and in some cases recounted) and the primary is over. But there is much more work to do between now and November 6. Nancy Floreen is attempting to circumvent the primary process by running for County Executive as an independent. Current County Executive Ike Leggett, the majority of current Council members, and David Blair are all supporting Marc Elrich as the Democratic nominee. We are going to do our part to ensure that Marc is elected as Montgomery County’s next Executive. We hope you will join us in those efforts! We can’t say it enough times – there is a lot at stake in this election and every vote counts!